Campaigners protesting against the closure of a popular Huddersfield leisure centre are looking at launching a legal challenge.
On 14 December, members of the Deighton community protested outside of their local sports centre against the closure.
The group, Save Deighton Sports Centre has contacted Manchester legal firm, Leigh Day, who are assessing their application with the claim that proper procedures were not followed by Kirklees Active Leisure (KAL). They’re considering pursuing a judicial review into the decision which is being backed by UK trade union, Unison.
The action comes as three leisure centres in Kirklees, Deighton Sports Arena, Batley Baths and Recreation Centre and Colne Valley Leisure Centre (swimming pool only) will be closing their doors today. These closures are set to be reviewed in March but protesters aren’t prepared to wait around.
Louise Lewis, mum-of-two and regular user of Deighton Sports Arena said: “It is closing tomorrow but we will be protesting to show that if it does close tomorrow, we are not waiting until March to have this re-open. March is too long. We have a number of teams who run in leagues and there’s nowhere for them to play. You can’t just cancel your fixtures and that not have an impact on your results, on where you play.
“We’ve been in Covid, we’ve been in lockdown for two years and we’ve come out of them, people’s mental health has suffered, we’ve got a lot of crime in the area amongst our children and they need a home, they need somewhere to come and keep them off the streets and give them an alternate pathway. This is not good enough KAL.This is not good enough, Kirklees Council. Where is your equality impact statement when you decided Deighton was a centre to be closed?”
Sophie Simpson, a local community worker from Conscious Youth CIC said: “We have young people come here throughout the Summer, throughout the Winter for holiday schemes. They use it all the time and for me, we’ve recently had a murder in the area, and stabbings and to take away a safe space sports centre right now is crazy. There is no thought for this community, there aren’t any spaces here at all where young people can actually go.
“This is probably one of the very few if not the last space that is in this community. The fact that they haven’t taken into account where we currently are shows that they don’t care to me and in the Ashbrow ward, it’s really really hard to try and make change happen and there are a lot of groups that are trying to do that but this is basically putting a stop there for us.
“What do we do? Where do we take them? We’ve got all the basketball clubs, football clubs, netball clubs. Where do these young people go now? What’s going to happen to them? Are we going to end up with another stabbing because there’s nowhere to go on a Thursday night or on a Saturday and Sunday when they’re meant to be playing football. What’s going to happen?”
She added: “This is a venue that would be used by community groups like myself to provide activities. It’s Christmas holidays next week and no activities can go on here. Normally during the holidays there’s some table tennis, there’s graffiti art, there’s arts and crafts, there’s different things for them to do. There is nothing on Christmas week so where are the young people from the Ashbrow ward going to go?”
Members of local sports teams also attended the demonstration. Eugene Andrew, who plays for the Deighton basketball club and coaches Deighton juniors described the situation as an “absolute disgrace.” He said: “I found out from a parent that they were deciding to close the centre. The centre that has helped over hundreds and hundreds of kids over the time that I’ve been here.
“I’ve got a group inside right now training, running around and they don’t know where they’re going to play next year. They don’t know where they’re going to bounce a basketball next year and these kids love this place. It’s not just a centre for the local area, it’s a centre for a lot of people. There’s people from Leeds, Halifax, Bradford, Manchester, some as far as London come and congregate here because they find an affinity, a definition of oneness here at Deighton.”
He added: “This centre is the heartbeat in Huddersfield and KAL are trying to kill it.”
